


Let Me Down Easy

by TheSightlessSniper



Category: Suits (US TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Challenge #6, Harvey is impulsive, M/M, OOC, Out of Character, marveyficchallenges, mike is an idiot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 04:25:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12927405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSightlessSniper/pseuds/TheSightlessSniper
Summary: "He listened to the voicemail twice while shouting through the partition for Ray to turn the car around. Three times over while fumbling for his passport and his credit card with shaking hands. A fourth time when he told Ray to drive through a red light.He didn’t necessarily have to make it in time to stop Mike. He just had to make it onto the next available flight to Los Angeles."





	Let Me Down Easy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FrivolousSuits](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrivolousSuits/gifts).



> I entirely blame this on, and subsequently dedicate this to, FrivolousSuits, because she encouraged me to try out the challenges in the first place.
> 
> This was titled and inspired by challenge #6 on the list: Let me down easy.

Today was the day. It was his last day in the city, but it felt an awful lot more like his last on Earth as he packed the last item into the box. The other side of the country felt like more than just a few hours plane journey away, and Mike really didn’t know whether he had it in him to do what he had planned, but he was going to suck it up and do it anyway.

The last of his belongings wrapped and packed, Mike sat cross-legged amongst the boxes, grabbed his phone, and prayed for Harvey not to answer for once.

 

Harvey had been planning for days. He had it all worked out; he was going to take Mike out to one last glorious meal, with the best drinks money could buy, and make him swear he would visit more than once every year.

But then one case after another had assaulted him from dawn ’til dusk, and suddenly he was leaving work at six instead of three like he’d been planning.

And just as he was settling into the back of Ray’s car was when he saw the icon on his phone. One voicemail.

From Mike. _’Hey Harvey. Look, I know we were meant to have this dinner. I know you were supposed to send me off to L.A. with a hangover waiting to happen when I touched down on the other end, but…I’m not altogether sure it would have been the best idea._

_Do you remember that time we got stoned together in my apartment? Everything was hazy by the time we got to the office, but I remember everything. I remember the smell of your cologne, and pot, and gatorade. And I remember being so close to pressing you up against the wall of that elevator and kissing you, you wouldn’t even believe it._

_I’m…grrrhhhI’m so fucking sorry. I’ve been bottling this up for years, and I figure a good time to tell you is when I’m leaving for the other side of the country, because I won’t have to face you. Or you won’t have to face me. And I won’t need to hear you try and let me down easy. This is why Rachel and I split up. This is why I needed to move. I couldn’t live in the same city knowing in the back of my mind that you didn’t feel the same way I do._

_I’m sorry, Harvey. I love you.’_

He listened to the voicemail twice while shouting through the partition for Ray to turn the car around. Three times over while fumbling for his passport and his credit card with shaking hands. A fourth time when he told Ray to drive through a red light.

He didn’t necessarily have to make it in time to stop Mike. He just had to make it onto the next available flight to Los Angeles.

 

Touching down in L.A. was eerily like leaving home for the first time, without the excitement of independence awaiting.

Mike gathered his case at baggage claim and paced out of the airport with determination, not even bothering to take his phone off flight mode as he tapped his foot to some rock band he’d seen live singing down his earbuds. He couldn’t stomach the idea of checking his messages. Not yet. Harvey probably had the voicemail by then, breathing a sigh of relief as he realised he wouldn’t have to deal with the repercussions of him admitting what he did.

He bought a coffee as a distraction, flicking through a discarded newspaper left on the counter next to him. The local news was of vague interest, but it quickly dissipated at the mention of New York law firms on one of the later pages; a picture of his former workplace was emblazoned on the centre of the page, a coffee ring around one of the captions underneath mentioning Harvey and Louis.

Shoving the paper to the side, he sipped the bitter coffee and swallowed back the homesickness.

 

Where there was a will, there was a way. And when Harvey had discovered that all direct flights to L.A. were booked up, he had taken the convoluted way.

Three connecting flights later, Harvey touched down, earning suspicious looks from the security as he passed through without luggage. He’d spent the entire flight alternating between watching whatever shitty in-flight movies were on offer, to thinking over the words that Mike had left for him in the message. No eidetic memory for him, but he could recall every word perfectly nonetheless, the last three sticking out and ringing over and over in his mind in the same distorted tinny resonance of his phone’s earpiece.

He had no idea what he was even going to say. He had no idea if he was even going to be able to find where Mike was; he’d left no details as to where he was going to be staying, nor whether he was going to change his number, or just disappear into the aether like he’d never existed at all.

All Harvey knew, was that the message Mike had left could not be the last words Mike spoke to him.

 

He was lying in the hotel bed when the call came through.

The staff member on the other end sounded confused as she relayed the message. ‘Mr Ross? There’s a guest here for you. He says that you’re expecting him?’

‘I’m…not expecting anyone.’

There was a pause. ‘He says, and I quote, “There’s a pineapple with your name on it, kid. I’m not eating it all by myself.” Should I send him up?’

The distant memory was as clear as the day it was created. Mike shot up on the sheets, sucking in a sharp breath. ‘…Okay.’

 

The elevator ride up felt a coffin, the floor numbers flicking by forever.

It hadn’t been difficult after all; Donna had spilled the secrets of Mike’s hotel bookings with the promise of lunch when he got back to tell her why he was chasing after him (again). She’d sought out the right flights that would link up, and a hotel room in the same place Mike had chosen as an interim before he moved into his new apartment. And she’d left him with one mysterious sentence before cutting off the call: ‘Buy him fruit.’

So there he was, cruising up to Mike’s room, with a pineapple in hand and his heart pounding in his chest.

He had no idea what he was actually going to say. He had no solid idea why he’d even followed him, but the impulse had uprooted all of his plans for the rest of the week, having had to leave two clients in the hands of his new associate and Louis, and telling Donna to report back to him if anything went completely up proverbial Shit Creek. Only Mike could do that kind of thing to him and get away with it.

Only when the door of the hotel room swung open, and he saw Mike blink back at him, Harvey knew what he had to say…

Nothing.

 

He smelled a little stale from the flights, his suit wrinkled from hours of sitting on a cramped plane, and hair a little more mussed than it should have been, but even with a five-o’clock shadow emerging, Harvey was still perfection incarnate as he waltzed through the door.

He placed the pineapple down on the table near the door, and before Mike could even vocalise a weak ‘Hey’, the man’s lips were on his, hands cradling his cheeks and jaw with a firm but gentle touch. The movement of Harvey’s mouth coaxed his own open, melting into the kiss and savouring the contact; he could come to his senses at any second.

When Harvey pulled away, foreheads touching together and breathing hard against his own breathless mouth, Mike finally found his voice. ‘Harvey?’

‘I can’t believe you left me a message like that. I can’t fucking believe you did that to me without giving me a chance to talk to you. You bastard, you were going to disappear without letting me say goodbye.’ The words were half-spat against his lips as Harvey kissed him again, hurt lacing every syllable. ‘How could you fucking do that to me?’

‘I couldn’t face you. I couldn’t stand losing you.’ He kissed him back, fumbling for the lapels of his suit jacket. ‘I could live with not knowing. But I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving knowing you hated me.’

‘I could never hate you. Goddamnit Mike, you’re infuriating. You leave me an “I love you” on a voicemail and don’t let me have the chance to say it back. You’re so—‘ a kiss to his temple— ‘fucking—‘ another to his cheek as desperate hands reached for the edge of his white t-shirt— ‘stupid.’

There was no room for any more words. Mike let himself fall back onto the bed, wiggling out of the t-shirt that Harvey was pulling over his head. He pushed at the jacket, tugged at the buttons of the dress shirt, tearing the knot out of the tie and throwing it across the room with abandon as he felt hips press firmly into his and grind. It was barely two minutes of sweet friction and pressure before he gasped against Harvey’s mouth again, Harvey quickly following him into ecstasy.

 

As the reality of what they had just done hit him, it was less like the bucket of ice that some might have expected, and more reminiscent of being gently tugged out of a daydream. Their relationship had metamorphosed in seconds into something that hadn’t quite been defined by their brief conversation before giving into their impulses, and yet the loss of it wasn’t something Harvey felt the need to mourn either.

For the first time in a long time, he felt truly at home.

He rested his face against the crook of Mike’s neck, taking strange comfort in the sound of Mike’s heavy breath rushing past the back of his head, the barely discernible tap of his pulse point against the tip of his nose as he nuzzled the stubbly patch of skin.

Mike sighed softly. ‘Harvey?’

‘Mm?’

‘…I…’ Mike’s throat moved against his chin as he swallowed thickly. ‘Shit, I don’t even know what to say.’

Harvey sat up slowly, turning them slowly so they were face-to-face on their sides on the wrinkled sheets. Breathing deep, he let a hint of the smile that wanted to escape quirk the corner of his mouth up. ‘Mike, you said all of that over a damn voice message, but you’re getting all tongue-tied now we’ve shared an orgasm?’

Visible heat rose up Mike’s cheeks in a bright flush. ‘Jesus, no need to be so blunt.’

‘Yeah, there is. You honestly thought that I would let you leave without talking about this face to face?’

‘…I was terrified, Harvey. I’ve denied myself this since I was ten years old and got a crush on Grammy’s newspaper delivery boy, who by the way bit my tongue when we kissed in the alleyway next to her house because he thought that’s what kissing was. I pushed myself into staying with Rachel when it wasn’t always working because I thought it was easier than going up to you and saying “Hey, here’s those briefs you wanted checked for holes. By the way, I’ve been in love with you for a few years now and it would be great if I could take you up on those flights to Buenos Aires so I can keep away from you wanting to kill me.”’ Mike finished by inhaling deeply, head falling back onto the pillow as he rolled onto his back. ‘You are the first man I have ever let myself love more than I should have because I thought doing it from a distance was going to be enough.’

Harvey’s fingers danced down his arm, caressing down the inside of his wrist to his palm. ’You didn’t think I’d want a say in this?’

‘I did. I just thought it would be “Get the hell away from me, what were you thinking?”’ The questioning lilt of his voice must have irked Harvey; his strong fingers looped around and between his, palm covering his own and pressing flush against it.

A kiss landed on his cheek, another on his neck. ‘I’m pissed at you. You took off. You were going to leave me with that message.’

‘I’m so sorry—’

‘But it doesn’t matter now. I love you.’ He turned his head, watching the smile spread. ‘I’m not going to let you down easy. I’m not letting you down at all. Come back to New York.’

‘Where will I even…’ the weight of his words and the realisation sank in. ‘You…want me to move in with you? Immediately?!’

‘Please. You were half-living with me after you and Rachel split anyway. You’re not moving in. You’re coming home.’

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!


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